DARPA ATLAS Humanoid Robot is Here

Get ready for endless "Atlas Shrugged" jokes in the media. DARPA has made the first official news release showing video of their new ATLAS humanoid robot. ATLAS was built by Boston Dynamics and evolved from their PETMAN humanoid prototypes which you've probably already seen. ATLAS will be used by seven of the teams in the latest DARPA Challenge. The robot has some impressive specs:

On-board real-time control computer

Hydraulic pump and thermal management

28 hydraulically actuated joints

Carnegie Robotics sensor head with LIDAR and stereo vision

One had built by iRobot and one by Sandia National Labs

It runs GNU/Linux and ROS of course. Read on for a DARPA video that includes an animated overview of the robots features, a series of video clips of the robot's evolution from PETMAN to ATLAS, and finally Atlas showing off his skills. You can also find more details on the DARPA ATLAS overview webpage.